It's a ROM day today. I hate being cooped up in this unhealthy-aired, stuffy building on beautiful days. It is beautiful today, too, because despite the still ridiculously high temperatures, there's a pleasant, cool breeze blowing. The trees are already coming into leaf, which is just... stupid. It's supposed to be a high of 10 tomorrow, which is about 17 degrees cooler than it is today, and they're talking about going below freezing Saturday night. Oh, and did I mention snow? Ya. The high on Sunday is supposed to be... 3 degrees. I think there are some seriously crossed wires.

In other news, unrelated to weather, one of Canada's favourite topics, I finally got my portfolio online last night. Sure, there are some MAJOR browser issues, for instance, it's only viewable in later versions of icky Internet Explorer, but I'll have that finished soon. Find it here. It's great ! (I hope my link works. I'm not used to having to type in my html to blogger, it usually gives me the little make-link button.)

Also, here's something nifty - I did indeed get my cartoon up and posted on Mom's union strike site and it looks nifty. Scroll down and hit the "Back to the table?" link. I think it might get put in the newsletter, too. Go me !

Anyway, I'm getting remarkably little done at the ROM today, so I think it's best if I, you know, went back to work. ;)

Tonight, Rick and I saw Atanarjuat, the fast runner. It was an absolutely incredible film. Poignant, beautiful, horrible, funny - it's all these things and so much more. And, in case you think that some film about Inuit people sounds dumb (you should be spanked, but nevermind) it has all the makings of a great film: jealousy, deceit, anger, love, lust, nudity, murder, friendship, magic, and ancestors.

Rick and I walked and talked our way to the theatre, which was very nice. It's been a really deep day for me, with lots of emotional discussion and whatnot. Rick and I had another talk about The Future, and all its scariness, and I've come to the conclusion that things will be as they must be. I know it's not a satisfying answer to anything, but it is the only way I can conceive of the things to come, and the possibilities that we will face, together, or alone. The end.

Before meeting up with Rick, I spent the afternoon with Ryan talking about, over lunch at MoMo's on Harbord, Isreal, war, defense, and generally our pessimism over the insanity that this world is spiraling into. Ryan, who comes at the world from a right-of-centre view point, and I, who comes at it from the left-of-centre, don't often agree, but in this we did. Completely. We talked of other things, too, as we walked from up there down to Queen St., and then all along the lake front. It was a long overdue visit.

Anyway, I ran into my exboyfriend, Neil, on the street car. He's still a loser. I win ! How uncharitable of me. Hah.

I'm going to eat some yogurt that Rick just brought me, and try not to scratch my sunburn now. Goodnight.

Okay, so the walk took one hour and fifteen minutes. I am STILL a sweat ball and I got home at quarter past seven. I need a shower.

I just tried to call my half-sister, Gina, as today is her birthday, except that the phone number has been disconnected. I'm worried. I haven't heard anything from them, and I'm not even sure Gina would remember to call Peterborough; she might only have my old phone number. Of course, if she dials it, it will still send her to my cell phone number. Grr. I had better write and mail a card tomorrow, then.

Oh, and here's a treat... enjoy the weather while you can... it's going to below freezing again over the weekend.

Today is a glorious day. I'm not typically one for extreme heat, but since this is the first real hot day of the season, I can get away with feeling some wonderfulness. It's about 30 degrees out (which for you Imperialists is about 85 farenheit). It's more with the humidex. Oh, and it's bright and sunny.

I went for lunch with Christian (one of my old pals from when I worked site sales downstairs at the ROM) and we went to Ned's, a little cafe restaurant that is, I believe, affiliated with Victoria College. We ate outside and proceded to burn in the sun. Yes, within half an hour, we were decidedly pinker than when we initially sat down. We strolled about, and I treated us both to our first soft ice cream cones of the season, which, while not as delicious as real ice cream, is satisfying and delicious in its own way.

We made the mistake of sitting beside a crazy woman who insisted on talking to herself and spitting beside her - long drooly threads of spittle. She didn't -look- crazy, just a little eccentric, but we realised how wrong we were. She took out a tiny bottle of Crown Royal and proceded to drink, spit, drink, spit, and at that point, we left her for another bench. Christian said, "Why would anyone, even a crazy person, spit out Crown Royal?" Good question. Christian was also the first person of the year to make those two absurd comments, "Hot enough for ya?" and "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." Inside, back at the desk, he added to Stacey that it was a "real swelter out there." Christian is awesome. It was nice to actually see him, even for only an hour. He's a good kid.

Anyway, I am feeling somewhat better today than I was last night, but we'll see how I am this evening. I think I'll walk home from the ROM, just to see how long a walk it really is. I figure it must be close to an hour.

Tomorrow I'm going to lunch with Ryan and then we're going to walk around, then I'm seeing Rick and spending the night at his place. Tonight, though, I -must- do my webpage.

Well, deary me. Tanya has been doing fun and exciting socialite activities. I am very pleased at how her life has developed since leaving Peterborough and... uh... cutting out the deadwood, so to speak. I really must go and visit her in London sometime soon, which leads me to wonder whether she'll be staying there over the summer. Also, she's apparently been counting the words in my web entries, and one, probably the BIG one from Philly, had a whopping total of something like 1900 words. Yes, that IS an essay. And to think, the web entry, at LEAST as interesting as half of my papers and probably three times more entertaining than most, only took an half hour to write, rather than two days and a night.

Anyway, I'm going to visit my oldest friend (not age-wise, but duration-wise), Kristina, who recently had her baby (Emma Jane). Kris lives out around my cottage, up the next road, in fact. I'm pleased to be going to visit her, which presently seems like it will be over the second weekend of May. I was -supposed- to visit Tracy at the end of April, too, but since she's driving to Florida with Tammy (and not me - *sniff*), she said it wouldn't be worth it. Lord knows I don't see her when she is living in Toronto, so I suppose I'll make due with some time around our birthdays.

Ya, I'm feeling a little sarcastic. It's a pervailing attitude I'm suffering from today, as I'm not in the best of head spaces. I had my tarot cards read, too, by John at Heretic, too, and the reading took an hour. It was very deep, or thick, as John said. It was heavy, is what it was. He simply confirmed all the crap going on in my head and then gave me ways to clear out my junk. And it was about me. It was entirely about my own issues, not those around me, which automatically makes it harder to listen to, and even harder to follow.

Our job description came in at the ROM, and Sara and I have already gone to the president of the union local in order to find out what our options are. In regrading our job, it seems we fell short of the income raise by less than 2 points. Ya. Ask me if I'm pleased. I'm not ! It was quite clearly a situation where they bumped up certain factors that had little weight, rather than those that actually matter, despite what we -actually- do. Imagine that. Gah.

Another thing that didn't please me was that I have been working steadily on my webpage, finally getting it near posting tonight... only it died ! I mean, half-way through the portfolio page I was working on, it ... crashed? No, it just, disappeared. It seems in some moment of lesser concentration, I did something I ought not to have done, and lost the changes I had made. I couldn't recall them, either. The 'undo' button was unselectable, and no amount of digging brought the file back. Frig. Oh well, at least I remember what I'd been doing, and I'd already done the finicky scaling of images, so I'm not too upset. It will be done tomorrow night, before bed, hopefully. I'm only focusing on the portfolio just now, because there are jobs I need to apply to that REQUIRE a webpage for visiting. If things don't work by tomorrow, I'll take my images to Kinkos and print them out for mailing.

Anyway, I see that my cartoon is STILL not up on my mom's union local page. I drew it because I was being pressured for cartoons. It's been a week and a half since it was done. Nevermind. But I'm certainly not going to concentrate on any more requests. That aside, I am very pleased with the webpage, as it's so well written and so... devoid of rhetoric. A nice, fresh change in the world of politics.

This entry is all over the place, so I'm just going to go take myself to bed. I need the sleep or I'll end up even crabbier tomorrow.

So, let's go back and revisit the wedding from a week past - more even. I worked the store that day with a great feeling of fun and frivolity. There was a big sign about the early closing due to the wedding, so people kept coming in and congratulating... me. Duh. People are silly, but I did pass the congratulations onto Sandra later. Rick met me at the store and at 5pm I closed up. We dressed in the store and got everything together. Boy, did we ever look fancy. We cabbed it to the Women's Club of UofT where we saw the wedding party returning from a photo shoot. Inside, there were several tables set up around a largish room, and many people wearing varying degrees of masques - some drugstore costume variety, others more complex, others made by hand to all levels of skill and creativity. Rick and I definitely stood out.

Dinner was good. No, dinner was excellent. Imagine that ! A wedding where we were served a rack of lamb ! Each ! There was wine on the tables, and a cash bar for those more alcoholically inclined, for instance, Melissa, one of the store's jewellers, who got trashed. The speeches went on a bit long, as the floor was opened for all sorts to offer their congratulations and best wishes. Naturally, after the wedding party did their speeches, I got singled out to make the first "open" speech. I think I handled it quite smoothly, with grace, wit, and silliness - that is not an oxymoron, really. I finished it by kissing the bride and groom before returning to my seat.

Dancing was fun, and many more people arrived to participate in the reception, including all the girls from the Children's Own Museum where John (the groom) works. It was fun, though weird to dance on carpeting, but the dj had to close it down a bit early when the fraternity house next door was raided by the police. Hah. People asked to take my photo; apparently my masque simply rocked *blushes demurely*, and I shelled out the money for the photographer to take pictures of me and Rick. It's amazing how good a person can look when you get posed as though you were a real model. Rick's not all satisfied, but I think the photos are amazing. One day, when I figure out how to do it, or rather, take the time to try, I'll put photos into my weblog. Tonight is not that night.

Sadly, following the wedding, I had to pack. That sort of put a damper on things, but overall it was an enjoyable time.

Rick and I saw Julius Caesar on Friday, put on by the Canadian Opera Company. It was good, though I felt the stage direction ... lacked. I would have made it a good deal more visual than it was, with a more creative use for all the screens that were used. Considering it's so costly to attend, it really makes me wonder whether it was quite worth it to attend in body. Not enough, I suspect. The woman playing Caesar was a somewhat limited actress, but her voice was unbelievably rich. One of the countertenors, the fellow playing Cleopatra's brother, Tolomeo, had a voice that caused goosebumps. Yum ! Cleopatra, herself was quite delightful. We did both enjoy it. And it seems there were claques (sp?) in operation in the upper balcony. They shouted ONLY for certain people, regardless of that particular scene/aria was worth it. *laugh* But JEANS? People wore JEANS to a Friday night production. Okay, Wednesday matinee, sure, I'll accept it, but Friday? Christ ! Save me from the unwashed masses ! I mean, people are killing themselves on stage, putting forward their best abilities, the least people can do is dress up.

This just in, Maya's a snob.